Creative With Cancer

MANILA: You can be creative with cancer. It's the how, and the how much. History says it should be much. As to the how, it should be how nice! This is a creative writer thinking.

2015: On 22 May, daughter Lila came up with the news on Facebook that her mother, former Senator Leticia Ramos Shahani, had colon cancer, stage 4 (Inday Espina Varona, ABS-CBNNews, news.abs-cbn.com). Image above is from Raul Ibañez, Manila and Beyond, blogspot.com); I posterized it. "She remains strong, as always, and is currently receiving several treatments," Lila said.

2016: On 26 January, on Facebook, very early today, Tuesday, I read Lila's post on her mother writing; Lila's note says:

Delighted that Mom has begun writing her memoirs in earnest! The draft is irreverent, erudite and in parts terribly funny. What a gargantuan life she's led! I'm doing the editing, with Vince occasionally looking over to provide historical insight.

Lovely sitting in the garden every evening after she's written a few pages, over dinner and drinks, with the chortling over what she's written so far.

Chuffed, and can't wait to work on it more.

Former Senator Leticia Ramos Shahani has led a charmed, and uncharmed, life. As my townmate, I was very proud of her when she stood up in Congress against the abuses of the Marcos regime. In December 1985, she resigned from the Philippine foreign service and joined the campaign of Cory Aquino against Ferdinand Marcos as President. That was a national shock because in the Philippines, you don't usually fight your relative. Shahani is a blood relative of Marcos. In February 1986, People Power overthrew Marcos as dictator President. Blood was not thicker than water.

Now Senator Shahani is writing her book; born 30 September 1929, she is 86 and she has colon cancer, as daughter Lila has written last year, and this may be her last book and, since it is her memoir, it must be the best that she can write. And since she is going through a creative process, I say to the rest of us:

Walk softly and carry a big smile.

Glad and wanting people to be careful, I immediately wrote this as my comment on Lila's yesterday's post on Facebook:

I'm a creative writer; my unsolicited advice is to leave her alone – she will be more creative that way. (If you wish to check my credential for that advice, please visit my blog A Magazine Called Love, blogspot.com, where you will find at least 2020 long essays, at least 1,000 words each, written and published in the last 10 years.)

Since Lila Shahani doesn't know me, and neither do you, I have to introduce myself. That count of 2020 long essays was as of June 2015 yet; 2020, I just love that number, from 20-20 vision, which means normal. Ah, but my creative writing is abnormal, above normal. Visit my one-stop-blog, A Magazine Called Love ("Love is the way") at blogspot.com. My latest blog count, including short articles, is 2,203 as of 25 January. That means I have added 183 long essays since 7 months ago, or 26 essays a month, and that's publishing a 1000-word essay almost every day! On a kaleidoscope of topics, from Abaca to Creativity to Faith to GMO to Insights to Knowledge to Methods to Programming to Sweet Sorghum to Unforgiveness to Word (Microsoft's and God's) to Youth to Zimbabwe. One of my favorite topics today? Women.

And Lila replied to my Facebook post:

Oh, I am not editing her "now" – that will come when she's finished, Frank. Right now she just wants feedback and comments, which I'm giving.

Not editing? What a creative person like Senator Shahani needs is an Author's Editor. Be careful now; it's probably not what you think an author's editor is.

The Author's Editor Facebook page says, "The Author's Editor provides editorial services and free writing tips to help your manuscript stand out in traditional or self-published markets" (facebook.com). I say no; that is the job of a selfish author's editor. Not helping the author at all to learn to write better.

On the other hand, Bruce W Speck emphasizes the role of the author's editor in "the collaborative nature of the writing process" (tandfonline.com). I say no, not collaborative, emphasis on the labor, the writing itself. I will now invent a word to use instead: coinspirative, emphasis on the inspiration, the inspiring each other, author and editor.

That is to say, the job of the author's editor, as I see it, is to egg you to write, even beg. To ask questions, but not leading ones. But never to teach you how to write. If I am your author's editor, I'm not going to write for you; that's ghostwriting. The author's editor is to inspire you, not perspire for you. You are the author, not me. Your style of writing should come out, unless of course it's awful – in which case the author's editor has to be creative about it.

The author's editor should edit you, but only after you're done with the first complete draft of your book. (I'm specializing in book production because nobody else is.) If you get edited while you're writing, one of your car's tires will get deflated along the information expressway where no one will stop to help.

Creative means productive, original, expressive, imaginative (American Heritage Dictionary); designed to stimulate the imagination, characterized by sophisticated bending of the rules or conventions (Collins English Dictionary).

Creative Senator Shahani has cancer and she is writing her book. How can you be creative with cancer? You can, in 2 ways. One, don't let it defeat you.  Two, how can you be creative with cancer when you are already old? Work or write as if it doesn't matter.

On 19 February 2015, famous doctor and author Oliver Sacks wrote about himself and revealed he had liver cancer at a terminal stage (New York Times, nytimes.com):

It is up to me now to choose how to live out the months that remain to me. I have to live in the richest, deepest, most productive way I can. In this I am encouraged by the words of one of my favorite philosophers, David Hume, who, upon learning that he was mortally ill at age 65, wrote a short autobiography in a single day in April of 1776. He titled it "My Own Life."

"It is up to me now to choose how to live out the months that remain to me." In that sense, Sachs didn't let his cancer defeat him. "I have to live in the richest, deepest, most productive way I can." In that sense, he was trying to defeat cancer.

Sacks then quoted Hume:

I now reckon upon a speedy dissolution. I have suffered very little pain from my disorder; and what is more strange, have, notwithstanding the great decline of my person, never suffered a moment's abatement of my spirits. I possess the same ardor as ever in study, and the same gaiety in company.

That is Hume writing. So you have cancer. Hume is saying such as, "Do not lose your passion even when you are learning. Do not lose fun even when you are with a group." I say, remember why you are studying or exploring. Remember why you have company. Keep your spirits up!

Is that at all possible? David Hume practiced it.

Oliver Sacks gave up the ghost on 30 August 2015, at 82. I say he gave up too soon on his cancer.

Old? If you are an author, write before the end of your life. The Irish literary & philosophical genius George Bernard Shaw was going 94 when he died. He was writing plays towards the end.

Old? If you are a doctor, you can venture into unknown territory. Like Linus Pauling with megadoses of Vitamin C as treatment for cancer. If you are wrong, the hell he was wrong – he was 90 years old! But he could have been right.

In creativity, the rule is that there are no rules. Like, you have to give crazy ideas the benefit of the doubt. Including yours.

Oh yes, here's something about creative writing that nobody else has come up with except Frank A Hilario:

There is no such thing as creative writing, only creative thinking.

I leave you there to your thoughts.